The Clay Planet
by TheSonOfTime
Summary: The Doctor lands on an unknown planet and encounters a colony of aliens, he thought to be done with.


**The Clay Planet**

Everything was calm. The engine was humming in a soothing manner throughout the corridors of the ship. The Doctor was sitting on the railing of the outer walkway inside the TARDIS' console room, and eyed the room carefully. His eyes darted from the bookshelves over the blue glowing "round things" to the main console, and finally onto the blackboard that sat quietly in the corner of the room, a small piece of chalk still vibrating on its top from the landing.

It was time for a redecoration. There had been too many dusty memories piling up inside this place. With a swift motion the Doctor whipped his new sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and made a few carefull adjustments at the console. In mere moments the room transformed from a gloomy blue chamber into a futuristic looking white room with light blue glowing walkways spiraling around the console pillar in the middle, which now had a slightly orange tint. The walls were lined with now rather infrequent and red circular shapes, and the white floor was lined with yellow glowing stripes, that ran throughout the ship in simplistic shapes. The Doctor's eyes almost gleamed with excitement as he went around the room stroking along the railings and the walls, before finally striding back down a marine spiral and sitting down on a comfortable white cushioned seat inbetween the console and the door. This room, he thought had a rather basic, but elegant design.

Suddenly he jumped up, and turned towards the door. His eyebrows drew together in a stern look as he slowly backed up to the console to get a closer look at his surroundings via the monitoring screen. He thought he heard a scream on the outside of the TARDIS. That made him curious about where he had actually landed before redecorating. On the screen he only saw a stone corridor, dimly lit by a single torch that was sticking out of a wall. Curious about where he was, and with nothing better to do on his mind, he decided to step outside.

After he carefully closed the door behind himself the Doctor started carefully walking through the corridor. When he reached a corner he set his hand onto the wall for the first time, and was surprised about the texture of what had seemed to be rock. He pressed a thumb into the wall, and under considerable force he was able to press a dent into the clay-like material. After this he took a peek around the corner and felt at least one of his hearts skip a beat. The wall of this hallway was covered in red organic material, sprawling along the surface, like some sort of parasitic mushroom. "Zygons." He whispered, pulling back behind the corner and leaning against a wall. "Must be another colony." He sighed, before taking a second look around the corner only to see a red humanoid creature, covered in suckers walking towards him. The Alien had clearly spotted him, so the Doctor saw no use in trying to run. Running would only make them send for reinforcements.

"Identify yourself!" The creature snarled at the Doctor, as it pointed a hand at him.

"I'm the Doctor." He replied bluntly.

"Why shouldn't I kill you right here and now?" The Zygon asked the old man, who eyed its venomous hand.

The Doctor was slightly startled at this threat, as he was not used to people not recognising his reputation, and instinctively grabbed for his screwdriver inside his pocket.

"Are you armed?" The Zygon inquired in a slightly suspicious tone.

This put the Time Lord at rest. A question he was used to, even enjoyed answering. "No, I'm not armed. Just equipped." He explained. "Although in your dictionary those probably mean the same thing."

"I am running out of patience." The alien warned, repositioning his hand, covered in poisonous spikes at the Doctor's neck.

"Of course." The Doctor muttered, staring at the red palm. "Would you like to escort me to your nearest prison?"

The Zygon eyed him, as if questioning the authenticity of a diamond, before simply stating: "We don't take old ones." and jumping towards the Doctor, its right palm menacingly raised.


End file.
